GUARDIOLA: YAYA KNOWS
MANCHESTER CITY manager Pep Guardiola indicated on the eve of his club’s Champions League campaign that Yaya Toure has not done enough on the training pitch to justify a single minute’s football this season. Guardiola has left the 34-year-old out of the squad to face Dutch champions Feyenoord tonight and said the player ‘knows why’ he is out in the cold. ‘It is between him and me. It is just a sporting decision,’ he said. ‘I demand as much as possible. I want more from Yaya, more from everyone.’ Sources close to the player, who trained in Manchester yesterday, indicated that he is not disheartened by his exclusion, with only four games having been played and there is no expectation that he will start every game. The player is unlikely to be so relaxed about the situation if there is no change in the next two months, though. Guardiola will be uncompromising on Toure’s contribution to training, his attitude and physique. Asked if he expected the midfielder to play again soon, the manager said: ‘Hopefully. It depends on the player.’ Despite City’s £215million outlay on players this summer, Guardiola said he still sees a gulf in experience and confidence between his side and the usual favourites. The total spend on City’s squad is £775m, £3m more than the amount spent by the Paris Saint-Germain side now parading £198m Neymar, but the Catalan said City were still growing. Guardiola asked John Stones how many Champions League games he had played — ‘10 maybe’, the defender replied. ‘The players at Barcelona and Bayern Munich have played more than 100, or 80,’ Guardiola said. ‘That is the difference.’ A year ago today Guardiola said ‘Why not?’ to the question of whether City could win the elite European crown and insisted there was no reason why English sides